With Jordan Bardella, the National Rally attempts a liberal turn to replace the right

POLICY – Change of right foot. Despite the fool's games which marked the examination of the budget in the National Assembly, the first part of which was rejected on Tuesday in the hemicycle, the long hours of debate will have allowed some political clarifications. Among them, the transformation of the National Rally on economic and social issues.

After years of denouncing Emmanuel Macron's unjust tax policy, and positions guided by the doctrine “ neither right nor left » dear to Marine Le Pen, the troops of the National Rally are accentuating their liberal turn, to the point of encouraging a pro-business policy close to the traditional right.

Certainly, the beginning of this turning point did not date from the fall. Under the leadership of its president Jordan Bardella, the Lepenist party has already erased several key social measures from its program during the last legislative elections (on floor prices for agricultural products or certain wage increases). But it is now particularly visible at the Palais Bourbon and seems widely accepted. In any case, by some of the troops.

« This party no longer has anything anti-system »

In the columns of Mondethis Wednesday, November 13, the deputy Matthias Renault is strong, for example, of “ defend France which produces and wants to live from its work, wants social advancement, earn money and does not ask for aid.” A tirade undoubtedly closer to Laurent Wauquiez than to Marine Le Pen, but which is in line with the language “ pro growth » by Jordan Bardella, used in the columns of Figaro mid-October, in the middle of the budget debate.

Consequence of the leader's speech: at the Assembly, the Lepenist troops regularly came to support the “ common base » by Michel Barnier on his budgetary roadmap and the measures put in place or encouraged by the macronie. Even if it means saving the furniture of their adversaries – who have not stood out with their presence – and showing themselves in support of a strategy that they are nevertheless supposed to despise.

Concretely, the far-right deputies pell-mell refused the return of the ISF (wealth tax) – the abolition of which Marine Le Pen criticized just a few months ago – or the increase in the flat tax carried by the NFP and the MoDem, to make capital income contribute more, again contrary to old declarations. All this, rather to defend measures favorable to large assets, on inheritance among others.

« This party no longer has anything anti-system », sums up in his own way the rebellious Éric Coquerel, for whom “ the National Rally always comes to the aid of the richest with our strongest measures. » For the president of the Finance Committee of the Assembly, at the forefront of budgetary debates, « it’s the Bardella line that wins”on the proponents of a more “ social populists », like Jean-Philippe Tanguy, and some of the historical sailors.

What remains “social” in the RN?

For a long time, the National Rally has effectively developed a sovereignist discourse (and xenophobic measures), but tinged it with a few social touches. In short, he promised to exclude foreigners from aid schemes to better reserve them for French people, while railing against the regular tightening of the rules for unemployment benefit or the transformation of RSA (active solidarity income).

So much so that Jean-Philippe Tanguy, the “ Mr. Finance » of the party, rose in 2023 against “the notion of assistance », yet very popular on the right. For him “ the minimum wage is not unhappy because of the RMiste [bénéficiaire du RMI, l’ancêtre du RSA] and no one lives permanently with an RSA. » The deputy for the Somme even praised, at that time, the constant and “courageous” of her candidate on these subjects, the same Marine Le Pen who described, for example, too much “ right-handed » the reform of unemployment insurance desired by Élisabeth Borne at the time.

But what about a year later? Apart from the repeal of the pension reform, which has been difficult to come by since the last legislative elections, and which Lepénist elected officials know has no chance of passing from now on, the last remnants of the social fiber claimed by the far-right party are becoming increasingly rare. In the proposals (where pro-business and entrepreneurial logic prevails), but also in the speeches where, symbol among others, the term “ assistantship » now has its place.

Mission: replace the right

In reality, this change of tone seems theorized and planned at the National Rally. Jordan Bardella explains this clearly in his book “ What I'm looking for », and champions the union of the different rights, in the wake of his agreement with the Ciottists last July for the early legislative elections. A trajectory which does not date from the last legislative elections. In February 2024, the MEP said “perfectly agree” with the conditioning of the RSA to 15 hours of activity proposed by the government. Problem: the group chaired by Marine Le Pen had voted against it in the National Assembly. And not by procrastinating: all 88 elected Lepénistes expressed themselves in the same direction.

Already, at that time, the far-right party was torn between its social discourse and its desire to conquer a liberal electorate, coming from the right. Since then, this electoral imperative has been reinforced in the RN, where the Lepénist elite is now working to increase contacts with top employers, in order to calm the fears long inspired by Marine Le Pen's economic project among business circles. 'business. With a clear objective: to explode the glass ceiling that separates the RN from power, by adopting the codes of a more classic right, whose heritage some outright claim, like the RN deputy Franck Allisio who claims to resurrect the RPR .

In short, the party's challenge now lies in its ability to supplant the traditional right (increasingly radical under the aegis of the Wauquiez-Retaileau tandem) and recover the space left vacant by moribund Republicans. Hence this belly dance aimed at convincing the bosses and the business world, which he once kept at a distance.

« We feel that the National Rally is keen to make its speech known on the economic leveladvances in this direction Éric Coquerel, with the aim of taking leadership on the right. » A company also identified in the presidential camp, not without fear. Near the HuffPosta former minister who has become a deputy again, fears through this positioning “ the possible return of the good old left/right divide that we blew up in 2017 with an NFP which leans towards the left, and an RN which now speaks like a radicalized right. » For the Macronists, “ it is a real risk of erasure. » For others too.

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